LEGO’s new Modular Natural History Museum (10326) will be available in December instead of January 2024!

October 31, 2023 | 16

LEGO have officially unveiled the next Modular – 10326 Natural History Museum, the biggest LEGO Modular set yet, coming in at 4,014-pieces!

As you can see, it’s also the second Modular Building since Assembly Square occupying a 48-stud wide baseplate giving it a unique facade and shape compared to other Modulars in the series.

The biggest surprise however is the release date – instead of the traditional 1st January release date, 10326 Natural History Museum will be available from 1 December 2023, just in time for Christmas, and pre-orders are now available through LEGO.com!

See below for regional pricing and product pages if you’d like to pre-order:

• 10326 Natural History Museum [US] – US$299.99
• 10326 Natural History Museum [AUS] – AU$449.99
• 10326 Natural History Museum [UK] – £259.99
• 10326 Natural History Museum [EU] – €299.99
• 10326 Natural History Museum [CA] – CAD$389.99

If you’re considering pre-ordering the Natural History Museum, please consider using these affiliate links which help support the work I do on the blog!

Modular Buildings are all about the facades, and designer Chris McVeigh has opted for Olive as the primary colour, which contrasts nicely against the two white pillars, a staple of museum architecture.

Oh, and there’s what seems to be a LEGO Food Truck in this lifestlye photo supplied by LEGO. It’s definitely not part of the set, so it might be a future LEGO Gift With Purchase to complement the Natural History Museum, in the same vein as 40586 Moving Truck was paired with the Modular Jazz Club.

Back to the facade, the roof incorporates some European influences, and there’s also a new Cherry Blossom Tree on the outside, which designer Chris McVeigh says was inspired by his work on 21060 Himeji Castle, which was released earlier this year.

Here’s a look at the back of the box which showcases some of the finer details. There are 2 levels, including a Study housed within the Roof for the Museum Curator, and the Museum features two atriums on each side.

There are two foil banners hanging on the outside, a Space-themed one that’s meant for LEGO Minifigures to look into the future, and another one looking back in time.

To the right of the entrance, visitors are welcomed by a giant brick-built Brachiosaurus skeleton. This dinosaur is so large, its neck rises above the first floor and stretches into the second. It’s flanked by several smaller exhibits including a sabretooth skull, a fossil, and yes, even dinosaur eggs. Up on the landing, the museum’s geology section showcases a colourful array of quartz, geodes, stalagmites and spotlighting a cutaway of the earth and its molten core.

Heading up to the second floor, witness a large map of the planet showing the projected orbit of a new rocket, a detailed orrery of the solar system, and a diorama of a future space base. Up on the roof, the museum’s curator recounts their experiences and travels in their detailed office writing memoirs.

One of the star features of the set is this Brachiosaurus skeleton, proudly on display in the museum. It’s really tall, with the skeleton extending above the first floor, into the upper level.

There are plenty of lovely little models inside the Museum, including this fantastic model of the Solar System, and plenty more to explore that LEGO hasn’t quite revealed yet.

Like all modern Modular Buildings, there’s some light storytelling weaved into the build, and the Natural History Museum has a little French Bulldog that’s a little mischievous.

A total of seven minifigures are included in the set which is a decent enough number, and there are some new torso prints for Museum Workers, as well as the Museum Curator. There’s also a visitor featuring a Prosthetic Leg, which was introduced last year in LEGO City.

This being a Natural History Museum, one would expect some sort of tie-in to LEGO Adventurers and Johnny Thunder, and if you look closely at the Museum Curator, he might look very familiar.

Could this be Dr. Articus Kilroy, or his twin, Dr. Charles Lightning from LEGO Adventurers? I can definitely see the resemblance here, and I’m left wondering if there are any other nods or references to LEGO Adventurers hidden in his study.

I somehow got my prediction right, and I’m really glad we have a Modular Building dedicated to Learning, History and the Sciences, something that has long been missing from LEGO’s extensive Modular Buildings Collection.

10326 Natural History Museum is a great addition to the recent slate of Modular Buildings, and I quite like the Olive Green colour scheme, which complements and stands out from the recent modulars, 10312 Jazz Club and 10297 Boutique Hotel.

Here’s how the 3 most recent Modulars look like connected to each other. You can see that the 48-stud wide footprint instantly gives it an especially unique and grand appearance that’s fitting a historical and cultural institution as important as a Natural History Museum.

Keep an eye out on the blog for my review of this set! I can’t to share that with you!

10326 Natural History Museum will be released on 1 December 2023, just in time for Christmas and can now be pre-ordered from LEGO.com. I suggest timing your pre-order to make the most out of any offer or Gift with Purchase, such as 40595 Tribute to Galileo Galilei (1-16 November), LEGO Insiders Weekend (19-18 November 2023), or LEGO Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

What do you think of the Modular Natural History Museum and the shifting of its release to December instead of the traditional January launch?

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